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This could go in Siri's thread about what we share, but I think it deserves its own discussion.
Pope Francis wrote a letter to the editor answering a series of questions. One of them was about atheists.
While couched in catholic language it makes an intriguing acknowledgement: that non-believers also act on and employ their consciences in decision making.
Rather than spending time here parsing Francis' words (I made a thread in P&CE for that which might not be considered a good act), I'd like to discuss the matter of shared conscience.
Most people, regardless of theological or philosophical attitude have a conscience, an internal sense of good and evil. The sense is problematic since history and present time demonstrate that it has (or is occluded by) cultural biases.
There is a tendency for people to treat sense of good and evil as if it were derived from religion or philosophy. But I think it is more accurate to say that it is shaped by those as it is shaped by culture and by personal experience.
It's also clear that conscience is not the faculty of decision making, that it suggests but cannot compel.
But the possession of such a guiding sense is shared between humans, and I think is one of the most useful elements for crossing the gaps between ways of thinking.
Pope Francis wrote a letter to the editor answering a series of questions. One of them was about atheists.
"Given – and this is the fundamental thing – that God's mercy has no limits, if He is approached with a sincere and repentant heart," the pope wrote, "the question for those who do not believe in God is to abide by their own conscience. There is sin, also for those who have no faith, in going against one's conscience. Listening to it and abiding by it means making up one's mind about what is good and evil."
While couched in catholic language it makes an intriguing acknowledgement: that non-believers also act on and employ their consciences in decision making.
Rather than spending time here parsing Francis' words (I made a thread in P&CE for that which might not be considered a good act), I'd like to discuss the matter of shared conscience.
Most people, regardless of theological or philosophical attitude have a conscience, an internal sense of good and evil. The sense is problematic since history and present time demonstrate that it has (or is occluded by) cultural biases.
There is a tendency for people to treat sense of good and evil as if it were derived from religion or philosophy. But I think it is more accurate to say that it is shaped by those as it is shaped by culture and by personal experience.
It's also clear that conscience is not the faculty of decision making, that it suggests but cannot compel.
But the possession of such a guiding sense is shared between humans, and I think is one of the most useful elements for crossing the gaps between ways of thinking.